As the Philadelphia Phillies midseason has arrived, there have been many storylines so far. The Phillies entered 2016 as a team that mostly consisted of young players with only a handful of players over the age of 30. This was another year of rebuilding for the Phillies, who haven’t finished over .500 since 2011. While they surprised the baseball world by performing extremely well for the first two months of the season, their developing team of young players had caught up to them. They enter the All-Star break in fourth place with a record of 42-48. Before looking ahead, let’s review what has already happened in the first half.

Phillies 2016 Midseason Report

Biggest Surprise- SP Vincent Velasquez 

Every team has that one surprise that few people expected before the season began. Some of the Phillies young players have made some big strides, but the biggest surprise is Vincent Velasquez. 

The Phillies acquired Velasquez last season from the Houston Astros in a trade that sent Ken Giles to Houston. While Velasquez was pegged to develop into an ace, he has skipped the developing process and is already the ace of the Phillies. RotoChamp projected Velasquez to go 7-8 with 129 strikeouts and finish with an ERA of 3.60. RotoChamp’s website also lists six other projections alongside theirs and none projected more than seven wins, 152 strikeouts, and an ERA lower than 3.43. In the first half, Velasquez already has eight wins, 93 strikeouts, and an ERA of 3.32. Right now he is on pace to outperform all those projections. Velasquez is a big reason the Phillies were competitive at one point in the season and is the biggest surprise of many surprises thus far.

Biggest Disappointment- 1B Ryan Howard

When a team is under .500, it isn’t too hard to find players that have disappointed the team. The biggest of these disappointments is not one of the young players however, but is the veteran Ryan Howard. 

Howard is a frustrating case. Along with Carlos Ruiz, Howard is the only other big-named player from the successful Phillies teams of 2007-2011. These two players have not been traded because they don’t have much, if any trade value. While Ruiz’ 3-year $26 million contract isn’t too much for the Phillies, Howard’s contract is killing them. He’s being paid $25 million this year and will be paid $23 million next year with a $10 million buyout.

Howard’s last few years have all went similarly: he hits a bunch of home runs, drives in a decent amount of runners, but then bats in the low .200s. Last season he hit .229 with 23 home runs and 77 RBI. In 2014 he hit .223 with 23 home runs and 95 RBI. While his home run and RBI totals of the last few years gives him some trade value, it’s all washed away with the amount of money he is owed.

This year may be the worst we’ve seen from Howard. Not only is he batting .154, but he only has 12 home runs and 27 RBI in the first half. Aside from the home runs, he is not even close to repeating his numbers from either of his last two years. Howard is the most paid player on the Phillies and can be considered the worst player on the team.

Midseason Team MVP- CF Odubel Herrera

Not everything in Philadelphia is negative. There was a reason the team overperformed at one point in the season. The biggest reason is due to Odubel Herrera.

This seems like a hard decision since the Phillies had some other deserving young players. Velasquez is easily the top starter on the team as mentioned before. Jeanmar Gomez has already notched 24 saves as closer and is easily the best reliever on the team. Perhaps the biggest snub of them all is Maikel Franco, who leads the Phillies in home runs and RBIs. 

Picking Herrera as midseason MVP wasn’t that hard once you move past the flashy stats of home runs and RBIs. Herrera is the most well-rounded player on the Phillies. He is also one of the most well-rounded of all the young players in MLB. Herrera leads the team in games played, hits, runs scored, stolen bases, walks, batting average, and on-base percentage. His 10 home runs show that he can hit for power. His 33 RBIs, that come mostly from the leadoff spot, shows that he gets timely hits. Overall Herrera has been the most valuable player for the Phillies in the first half of the season.

What to Watch for in the Second Half

It appears like the Phillies second half will be filled with meaningless games from a playoff perspective. Each year of rebuild is important for other reasons though. Players like Velasquez, Gomez, Franco, Herrera and others appear to be the future of this franchise. Watching those players develop and improve into the best at their positions can be exciting and important. If these cornerstone players develop quicker than expected, this could be a competitive team sooner rather than later. 

Along the lines of individual performances, fans can root for different season milestones from some of the players. Franco has a chance at both 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. A strong second half can allow him to reach one or both of those milestones. Gomez is on pace for over 40 saves. If he keeps it up, he can make a run at the Phillies single-season saves record of 45 saves set by Jose Mesa in 2002. Also, Velasquez has an outside chance of Rookie of the Year. While he has some tough competition with Corey Seager, Trevor Story, and Steven Matz among others, an even better second half could get him some votes.

It’s always exciting to see a top prospect called up to the show. The Phillies top three prospects: SS J.P. Crawford, RHP Jake Thompson, and OF Nick Williams are all currently in Triple-A Lehigh Valley and could be in line for a promotion. Both Thompson and Williams are performing well enough for a promotion. Crawford isn’t raking in Triple-A, but it won’t be surprising to see his tide change and be called up soon after. For the Phillies, the rest of 2016 will be a season of players reaching milestones, young players developing, and minor league prospects advancing through the system.

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